Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, May 7: Three militants of Hizbul Mujahi+-deen were killed by security forces in a fierce gun battle in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district in the wee hours today.
Police and Army last night launched a joint operation in Panzgam village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district after receiving specific intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in a house.
As the security forces were conducting search operation in the village, the hiding militants fired upon them, triggering an encounter. Three local militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in the gun battle. They have been identified as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Dogipura, Ishfaq Ahmad Baba, a resident of Tahab and Haseeb Ahmad, a resident of Brao Bandyun. Three AK-47 rifles were also recovered from the encounter site.
Security forces this year achieved major success against militants in South Kashmir and so far they have killed 12 militants of Hizbul Mujahideen and 10 of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
A Defence spokesman said here that three top militants of Hizbul Mujahideen were gunned down in a swift encounter in Dogipura village, near Panzgam of Pulwama district today.
“Based on specific intelligence about the presence of some terrorists in the Dogirpura village, near Panzgom, Distt Pulwama, a joint operation was launched by the Army and JKP on Friday evening. As the operation progressed to track down the terrorists, the terrorists opened fire and a gun battle ensued which continued intermittently through the night. In the operation three heavily armed terrorists have been eliminated and a large quantity of arms, ammunition and other war like stores have been recovered including three AK 47 rifles, six magazine and 85 rounds of AK 47 rifles”, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said: “The identity of the terrorists has been ascertained as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar S/o Abdul Ahmad Dar R/o Dogipura and Ishfaq Ahmad Baba S/o Gulam Qadir Baba R/o Tahab, both were top terrorists of HM cadre active in Awantipura area since year 2014 and involved in many terrorist related incidents while the third terrorist has been identified as Hasib Ahmad Palla S/o Ghulam Mohd Palla R/o Brao – Bandyun of LeT outfit who joined militancy in year 2015”.
The killing of militants led to massive protests in Pulwama and over a dozen youth were injured in clashes with security forces. Youth took to streets in Tahab and Bandina villages where these militants were buried. Security forces lobbed teargas shells to disperse the protesters who pelted stones on them.
Authorities suspended train services between Banihal and Srinagar to prevent protests against the death of three militants. A Railway official said that the services have been suspended for a day due to “law and order situation”.
In the meantime, a massive search operation was resumed in the forests of Thanda Pani near the Line of Control (LoC) in the frontier district of Kupwara this morning where troops foiled a major infiltration bid from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) yesterday, in which a soldier was killed. Additional troops were rushed to the area from nearby camps to cordon off the entire dense forest.
However, no contact was established with the infiltrators. Sources said that since they were intercepted beyond the fence so they must have fled back to the PoK. Yesterday, Army jawan Ramesh Chand Yadav was critically wounded in the gun battle with the infiltrators. He was airlifted to base hospital, where he succumbed.
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